head to head · open source
huginn vs skywalking-java
huginn has 50,269 GitHub stars, 4,339 forks, 698 open issues and last shipped yesterday. skywalking-java has 928 stars, 694 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. huginn leads on adoption by 5,317% (50,269 vs 928 stars). huginn is written in Ruby under MIT; skywalking-java is written in Java under Apache-2.0. huginn has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, skywalking-java 75%. skywalking-java was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| huginn | skywalking-java | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 928 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 694 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick huginn if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick skywalking-java if
- You want the skywalking-java feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and skywalking-java fits your workflow better
About huginn
What is Huginn? Huginn is a system for building agents that perform automated tasks for you online. They can read the web, watch for events, and take actions on your behalf. Huginn's Agents create and consume events, propagating them along a directed graph. Think of it as a hackable version of IFTTT or Zapier on your own server. You always know who has your data. You do. Here are some of the things that you can do with Huginn: Track the weather and get an email when it's going to rain (or snow) tomorrow ("Don't forget your umbrella!") List terms that you care about and receive email when their occurrence on…
read the full huginn overview →
About skywalking-java
Apache SkyWalking Java Agent ========== SkyWalking Java: The Java Agent for Apache SkyWalking, which provides the native tracing/metrics/logging abilities for Java projects. SkyWalking: an APM(application performance monitor) system, especially designed for microservices, cloud native and container based (Docker and Kubernetes) architectures. Documentation Official documentation Downloads Please head to the releases page to download a release of Apache SkyWalking. Code of conduct This project adheres to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please…
read the full skywalking-java overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is huginn or skywalking-java more popular?
huginn has 50,269 GitHub stars and skywalking-java has 928. huginn has the larger community by that measure.
Are huginn and skywalking-java free?
Both are open source. huginn is licensed under MIT and skywalking-java under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between huginn and skywalking-java?
huginn is written in Ruby and skywalking-java in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, huginn or skywalking-java?
Choose huginn if you want the larger community (50,269 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose skywalking-java if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.